Researchers studied how variation in body size affects the strength of interactions between lobsters and sea urchins across different spatial and temporal scales. The researchers examined lobster-urchin interactions to understand how body size influences interaction dynamics. Body size variation drives spatial and temporal variation in lobster-urchin interaction strength. Understanding how body size affects predator-prey interactions helps predict ecosystem dynamics and species interactions in marine environments.
Citation
DiFiore, Bartholomew P.; Stier, Adrian C. (2023). Variation in body size drives spatial and temporal variation in lobster–urchin interaction strength. Journal of Animal Ecology.
Size matters more than numbers
How hard lobsters hit urchin populations varies across sites and years. Combining feeding experiments with nine years of field data, this study split that variation between body size and density.
From DiFiore & Stier (2023), Journal of Animal Ecology (Results): variation in lobster and urchin body size accounted for 82%–89% of the variation in interaction strength, density for the remainder.
Cite this article
DiFiore et al. (2023). Body Size Variation Drives Changes in Lobster-Urchin Interactions. Ocean Recoveries Lab. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13918
